Some parks play better for offense than others, and some players take advantage of (or are penalized by) their surroundings moreso than others. To identify some of these players, we present the top 30 most dramatic positive and negative home/road OPS splits since 2009.

Only players with at least 500 home plate appearances and 500 road PAs are included. All data generated by FanGraphs sortable batting leaderboards.

LEGENDAn asterisk (*) denotes lefthanded batters, while a pound sign (#) indicates switch-hitters
Home (h) and road (r) performances distinguished by prefixesBIP is batting average on balls in play

HOME COOKING
LARGEST POSITIVE HOME/ROAD OPS SPLITS, 2009-11

NO

B

PLAYER

TEAM

hPA

hOPS

hBIP

rPA

rOPS

rBIP

DIFF

1

*

Luke Scott

Orioles

638

.979

.305

621

.688

.266

.291

2

*

Carlos Gonzalez

Rockies

786

1.057

.366

709

.777

.336

.280

3

#

Jorge Posada

Yankees

650

.938

.343

626

.668

.242

.270

4

Nelson Cruz

Rangers

747

.988

.334

726

.754

.273

.234

5

Ian Kinsler

Rangers

929

.928

.290

894

.705

.229

.223

6

Aramis Ramirez

Cubs

711

.941

.333

764

.738

.253

.203

7

*

Seth Smith

Rockies

646

.935

.314

671

.736

.290

.199

8

Corey Hart

Brewers

800

.932

.331

837

.743

.306

.189

9

Juan Uribe

SF/LAD

649

.823

.315

653

.639

.238

.184

10

Paul Konerko

White Sox

927

1.002

.300

964

.821

.307

.181

11

Drew Stubbs

Reds

714

.819

.370

746

.645

.303

.174

12

Yorvit Torrealba

COL/SD/TEX

523

.802

.350

501

.630

.294

.172

13

*

Travis Hafner

Indians

628

.900

.324

585

.737

.317

.163

14

*

Andre Ethier

Dodgers

928

.917

.332

893

.760

.303

.157

15

Billy Butler

Royals

1,023

.920

.355

1,000

.767

.303

.153

16

Alex Rios

TOR/CWS

856

.781

.284

964

.629

.261

.152

17

*

Jay Bruce

Reds

798

.892

.309

826

.741

.275

.151

#

Dexter Fowler

Rockies

798

.851

.357

788

.700

.333

.151

19

Pat Burrell

TB/SF

520

.829

.313

612

.680

.266

.149

20

Michael Young

Rangers

1,000

.911

.356

1,000

.763

.329

.148

21

Magglio Ordonez

Tigers

629

.841

.342

611

.694

.286

.147

22

#

Mark Teixeira

Yankees

1,035

.951

.280

1,068

.806

.260

.145

23

#

Felipe Lopez

5 teams

650

.792

.341

624

.649

.294

.143

24

Jerry Hairston Jr.

5 teams

620

.767

.285

665

.625

.260

.142

25

Kevin Youkilis

Red Sox

765

.989

.374

775

.856

.283

.133

26

*

David Ortiz

Red Sox

931

.946

.335

907

.815

.264

.131

27

#

Chipper Jones

Braves

767

.877

.289

722

.750

.288

.127

Justin Upton

D-backs

914

.932

.361

919

.805

.324

.127

29

Troy Tulowitzki

Rockies

897

.992

.331

866

.868

.299

.124

30

#

Pablo Sandoval

Giants

839

.919

.348

876

.798

.291

.121

Naturally, a number of core Rangers (Nelson Cruz, Ian Kinsler, Michael Young) and Rockies (Carlos Gonzalez, Seth Smith, Dexter Fowler, Troy Tulowitzki) players populate the list of elite home performers, given the offensive nature of Rangers Ballpark and Coors Field. A few other takeaways:

• Three players to watch as they move to new home ballparks in 2012: Luke Scott, Aramis Ramirez and Seth Smith. A 33-year-old Scott signed on with the Rays after a rousing performance for the Orioles at Camden Yards (.297/.382/.596 with 42 homers in 638 PA) during the past three years. On the road, though, Scott batted a far more ordinary .225/.304/.384 with 19 homers in 621 PA.

Following a successful nine-year run with the Cubs, Ramirez signed with the Brewers to give the Milwaukee left side of their infield a boost. Miller Park plays favorably for righty power hitters like Ramirez, so he might not be affected all that much by the ballpark switch. For the record, he batted .246/.306/.432 with 31 homers in 764 road PA from 2009-11.

The Rockies traded Smith to the Athletics for a pair of young big league arms (Guillermo Moscoso and Josh Outman), and he leaves the ideal hitting environment of Coors Field (where he hit .302/.367/.568 with 29 homers in 646 PA since 2009) for Oakland and its miles of foul territory.

• Virtually all players on this list have received a hefty boost in batting average on balls while playing at home over the course of the past three seasons. One notable exception is the Braves' Chipper Jones, who has virtually the same BABIP both home and away. However, his OPS has been 127 points higher at home by virtue of an enhanced power showing at Atlanta's Turner Field. At home, Jones has registered a .207 isolated power and home run-to-flyball rate of 15.7 percent. On the road, those numbers fall to .144 and 7.7 percent.

ROAD WARRIORS
LARGEST NEGATIVE HOME/ROAD OPS SPLITS, 2009-11

NO

B

PLAYER

TEAM

hPA

hOPS

hBIP

rPA

rOPS

rBIP

DIFF

1

Rod Barajas

TOR/NYM/LAD

548

.618

.219

588

.772

.250

-.154

#

Chase Headley

Padres

822

.650

.292

903

.804

.371

-.154

3

Cameron Maybin

FLA/SD

520

.634

.299

569

.765

.349

-.131

*

Adrian Gonzalez

SD/BOS

1,021

.872

.335

1,068

1.003

.325

-.131

5

#

Erick Aybar

Angels

834

.653

.282

916

.774

.334

-.121

6

Jose Lopez

SEA/COL/FLA

718

.620

.247

799

.730

.262

-.110

7

#

Brian Roberts

Orioles

579

.707

.294

577

.816

.316

-.109

8

*

Joey Votto

Reds

922

.927

.327

989

1.035

.390

-.108

9

Juan Rivera

LAA/TOR/LAD

734

.692

.250

814

.798

.298

-.106

10

Jamey Carroll

CLE/LAD

656

.656

.312

626

.760

.369

-.104

#

Maicer Izturis

Angels

566

.687

.295

603

.791

.311

-.104

12

Alcides Escobar

MIL/KC

609

.578

.267

675

.681

.298

-.103

13

*

Will Venable

Padres

568

.683

.281

612

.775

.346

-.092

14

#

Cliff Pennington

Athletics

698

.657

.298

677

.743

.324

-.086

15

*

Scott Podsednik

CWS/KC/LAD

565

.700

.324

617

.785

.353

-.085

16

David Eckstein

Padres

560

.612

.252

500

.696

.319

-.084

17

*

James Loney

Dodgers

923

.703

.295

958

.784

.311

-.081

18

Kevin Kouzmanoff

SD/OAK/COL

663

.649

.275

753

.729

.272

-.080

19

Jason Bartlett

TB/SD

799

.679

.309

918

.757

.325

-.078

20

*

Colby Rasmus

STL/TOR

786

.717

.294

794

.790

.302

-.073

21

*

Hideki Matsui

NYY/LAA/OAK

860

.762

.282

811

.827

.284

-.065

22

Ryan Ludwick

STL/SD/PIT

804

.701

.287

849

.758

.299

-.057

23

Alfonso Soriano

Cubs

794

.744

.288

784

.793

.273

-.049

24

*

Miguel Montero

Diamondbacks

650

.787

.342

704

.835

.301

-.048

25

*

Adam Dunn

WAS/CWS

908

.794

.286

904

.840

.322

-.046

26

#

Nick Swisher

Yankees

912

.831

.300

965

.875

.304

-.044

*

Jason Heyward

Braves

544

.767

.289

535

.811

.317

-.044

28

Aaron Rowand

Giants

588

.659

.277

666

.702

.314

-.043

29

#

Melky Cabrera

NYY/ATL/KC

876

.731

.296

879

.773

.316

-.042

Ryan Raburn

Tigers

514

.779

.293

605

.821

.358

-.042

Two Angels and two Padres regulars have been hampered by their home parks in the last three years. Imagine if you will a world in which Chase Headley is a .305/.366/.438 hitter, and his Padres teammate Will Venable sported an overall batting line of .275/.337/.438. Those are their road averages since 2009, but Headley has lost 154 points of OPS at home in Petco Park and Venable 92. Angels shortstop Erick Aybar has batted .303/.343/.431 over 916 road PA the past three seasons, while teammate Maicer Izturis has batted .293/.357/.434 in 603 PA away from Angel Stadium.

• Only Albert Pujols sported a higher OPS in the National League from 2009-11 than the Reds' Joey Votto, yet he hit for about an additional 100 points of OPS when away from Cincinnati's Great American Ballpark during that stretch. (That would be .340/.437/.598 with 46 homers in 989 PA.) More significantly, Votto (1.035) and Adrian Gonzalez (1.003) are the only two players to crack four figures for road OPS over the course of the last three seasons. Pujols finished a distant third at .894.